CHAP. VI.

(Of the World, 3908—Of Rome, 608.)

[1]About the same time the [2]Lusitanians in [3]Spain [4]beat the Romans most [5]shamefully [6]under the [7]conduct of [8]Viriathus; who from a [9]huntsman [10]became a [11]highwayman; and from a highwayman, a general, and [12]defeated the Roman [13]armies [14]several times. But that [15]overthrow was most [16]memorable of all [17]others, in which, in the year 608, having [18]routed the [19]forces of [20]Vetilius the [21]prætor, [22]he took him prisoner, and [23]put him [24]to death, according to [25]Appian. Nor was he the [26]only one that was [27]conquered by Viriathus, but several others [28]underwent the same [29]fate. The first that was [30]successful [31]against him was [32]C. Lælius the prætor, in the year 609. After which the proconsul [33]Quintius Fabius Maximus [34]defeated him. In the year 614, [35]Q. Servilius Cæpio [36]basely [37]procured him to be [38]assassinated by some of his own [39]officers, whom he had [40]bribed [41]for that purpose, to the great [42]dishonour of the Roman [43]name.

After this a much more [44]dangerous war [45]broke out in Celtiberia. The Numantini having [46]received the [47]Segidenses their [48]allies, that had [49]escaped the [50]hands of the Romans, were [51]commanded by Metellus the proconsul, [52]to deliver up the [53]refugees, and [54]lay down their [55]arms, but they [56]refused both: and [57]though they were so much [58]inferior to the Romans, in [59]number and [60]strength, they [61]made a [62]gallant [63]resistance for some [64]years. The [65]army of [66]M. Popilius the proconsul, was [67]cut off by them, and the year [68]following, [69]thirty [70]thousand Romans, under the consul Mancinus, were [71]routed by four thousand of the Numantini; which [72]disgrace was [73]followed by a most [74]shameful [75]peace; but the senate [76]refused to [77]ratify it; [78]wherefore Mancinus was [79]delivered up into their hands, but the Numantini would not [80]receive him. [81]At last they were [82]vanquished in the [83]field by Scipio, who had [84]destroyed Carthage; and being [85]shut up within their own [86]walls, were [87]reduced to [88]so desperate a condition, that they all [89]laid violent hands upon themselves; and Numantia was [90]levelled with the ground, in the ninth year after their [91]revolt from the Romans, and from the [92]foundation of the city 621.

[93]Whilst the Romans were [94]still at war with the [95]Achæans and Carthaginians, Macedon was [96]conquered a third time. [97]Andriscus, a [98]man of [99]mean birth, who [100]pretended to be [101]Philip the son of [102]Perseus, had [103]possessed himself of it. He was conquered by [104]Q. Cæcilius Metellus, with the [105]slaughter of 25,000 [106]of his men. Metellus had [107]from thence [108]the surname of [109]Macedonicus.

At the time that the Romans were [110]engaged in the [111]Numantine war, there was a [112]rising of the [113]slaves in Sicily. A [114]Syrian, [115]by name Eunus, [116]pretending to a [117]divine [118]inspiration, [119]called the slaves to [120]arms and [121]liberty, [122]as it were by the [123]order of the [124]gods; and having [125]raised a [126]vast [127]army, [128]consisting of no less than 70,000 men, he [129]vanquished four Roman prætors, and was [130]at last [131]routed himself, by P. Rupilius the consul, in the year of the city 622.

Attalus, son of [132]Eumenes, king of [133]Phrygia, when his [134]uncle Attalus was [135]dead (who after Eumenes’ death had [136]managed the [137]kingdom as his [138]guardian), [139]reigned five years, and dying about the year of the city 621, made the Roman people his [140]heir: which [141]Aristonicus, a son of Eumenes by one of his [142]mistresses, [143]taking amiss, he [144]seized upon Asia, and [145]cut off the army of Crassus the prætor. Afterwards he was [146]vanquished by the consul Peperna, and an [147]end was put to the war the year [148]following, 625, by M. Aquilius the consul. This was a [149]melancholy year for the [150]death of Scipio Africanus, who was [151]found dead in his [152]bed, not without the [153]suspicion of having been [154]poisoned by his [155]wife.

The year in which Attalus [156]made the Roman people his [157]heir, there was a [158]formidable [159]sedition at Rome. For T. Gracchus, [160]tribune of the [161]people, having made the [162]Agrarian law, that [163]nobody should [164]possess above 500 [165]acres of [166]land, and [167]proposing to have the [168]money of king Attalus [169]divided amongst the people, and [170]likewise [171]suing for the [172]tribuneship against the year following, the senators being very much [173]disturbed at the [174]matter, he was, by the [175]order of P. Corn. Nasica, [176]slain in the [177]Capitol, [178]whither he had [179]fled for [180]refuge.

After the death of Tiberius, his [181]brother Caius [182]pursuing the same [183]design, was [184]taken off by Opimius, the consul, and [185]together with him, Fulvius Flaccus, who had been consul.

In the year of the city 629, the Romans first made war upon the [186]Gauls [187]beyond the Alps. They [188]began with the Salii, and [189]Allobroges, whom Fulvius Flaccus [190]subdued. In the year 633, Fabius the consul made an end of the war with the Allobroges. He [191]conquered Bituitus, king of the Arverni, in [192]battle. The king himself [193]coming to Rome to [194]satisfy the senate, was [195]confined at Alba. Then Gallia Narbonensis was made a [196]province, and a [197]colony [198]sent to Narbon in the year 636.

The Romans were after this [199]almost [200]perpetually at war with the Gauls, by whom they were [201]oftentimes [202]soundly beaten; but, above all others, the Cimbri and Teutones were [203]terrible to them. They [204]marching for Italy, and not [205]being able to [206]prevail with the senate for [207]room to [208]settle in, they [209]routed M. Silanus the consul; the year following Scaurus was [210]defeated by the Cimbri, and L. Cassius by the Helvetii Tigurini the year after that. But the [211]overthrow of Q. Cæpio was more [212]memorable than all the [213]rest. He had [214]plundered [215]Tholouse in the [216]country of the Tectosagæ, and had [217]carried off an hundred thousand [218]pounds of [219]gold, and fifteen hundred thousand pounds of [220]silver. This was done in the year of the city 648. But the following, he, with C. Manilius, [221]paid for this [222]sacrilege, with the [223]utter, [224]destruction of the Roman army. It is certain there were [225]slain in this [226]battle of the Romans and their [227]allies, [228]fourscore thousand, and of [229]servants that [230]followed the [231]camp [232]threescore thousand.

At length the Teutones and the [233]Ambrones were almost all [234]destroyed, two hundred thousand being slain, and seventy thousand [235]taken [236]prisoners, by C. Marius the consul, in the year 652; and the following year, the same Marius, [237]in conjunction with Catulus, defeated the Cimbri, that were [238]making their way through [239]Noricum, [240]slew an hundred and twenty thousand, and took sixty thousand prisoners.